This invention relates to a machine for liquid spray processing of substrates or wafers in the manufacture of electronic devices or integrated circuit chips, and more particularly to the housing or bowl defining the chamber wherein such substrates are processed.
The housing or bowl for such a machine has a hinged cover as to tightly close the processing chamber, allowing access to the substrates being processed. A turntable in the bowl mounts a multiplicity of substrates being processed. The turntable may mount a single carrier of substrates at the rotation axis, or may mount a number of carriers at the periphery of the turntable. The turntable is driven by a shaft of which extends through the base wall of the bowl, opposite the cover.
Spray nozzles or spray posts in the bowl direct sprays of various processing liquids and gases, in a sequence of processing steps, onto the substrates or wafers being processed. Such spray nozzles or posts may be located at the outer peripheral bowl wall to direct sprays inwardly and onto the revolving substrates. Alternatively, the spray nozzles or post may be located centrally of the bowl to direct spray outwardly onto the substrates carried on the periphery of the turntable and revolving about the nozzles or spray posts.
Previously, the chamber defining housings or bowls have been made of stainless steel. Such bowls are illustrated in prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,990,462; 4,132,567 and 4,197,000. Because of the method of forming such stainless steel bowls, these bowls have been limited in the shape and therefore in the function that could be accomplished by the bowl without attachments. In addition, stainless steel has limitations in its ability to withstand the deteriorating effect of highly active processing chemicals, which include hydrofluoric acid, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide and similar highly active acids.